Uniformed officer asked to leave ‘gun-free’ Outback Steakhouse because of service weapon

By Alexandra Deabler 

A uniformed officer carrying his service weapon was asked to leave an Outback Steakhouse restaurant because it is a designated “gun-free zone.”

Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency officer Andrew Ward went to Outback Steakhouse to have dinner with his wife Friday evening, he wrote in a public Facebook post.

Ward said in the post that a manager approached him and requested that he put his gun in his truck. Ward told the manager that he could not because he was in uniform and had to have his weapon on his person.

The manager left to make a call, Ward writes, and then returned to ask Ward and his wife to leave because Outback is a “gun free zone.”

Ward noted that he does not “blame the manager,” but was angered by the treatment an armed “uniformed Law Enforcement Officer who is sworn to protect and serve the public” received.

Since Ward posted the incident on Facebook, he said a representative for Outback contacted him and apologized for what they called a mistake.

In a statement to NewsChannel9, the Director of Media and Community Relations for Outback’s parents company, Bloomin Brands, said:

“We’ve always allowed uniformed law enforcement officers to carry their side arms inside our restaurants. A manager made a mistake and we have discussed this with her. We have contacted the guest personally and apologized.”

Ward said the chain told him “there was another customer that was ‘scared for her life’ who was seated across” from the couple, and said “she was afraid because ‘police are shooting people.’”

According to Ward’s post, “This customer went on to demand to be escorted to her vehicle out of fear of being shot.”

Read more at Fox News

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UPDATE: Fla. bystander fatally shoots cop’s attacker – new video

The citizen was found justified in the shooting

March 16, 2017

By PoliceOne Staff

ESTERO, Fla. — Cellphone video was released Tuesday of the fatal shooting of a suspect who was attacking a deputy on Nov. 14.

Deputy First Class Dean Bardes responding to a crash when he recognized a suspect and attempted to pull him over, WINK reported. 

After a high-speed pursuit, Edward Strother exited the vehicle and began attacking Bardes, according to NBC2. Bardes was pinned to the ground while Strother continued to attack.

Concealed carrier Ashad Russell approached Strother and ordered him to stop attacking Bardes. Strother refused and Russell shot him three times, NBC2 reported.

Bardes was not shot and suffered minor injures from the attack. Strother was transported to a hospital where he died. The news station reported that no 911 calls were made during the incident.

Russell was found justified in the shooting because Bardes’ life was in danger, according to the state attorney’s office.

Bardes is back on duty.

PoliceOne

Also:

Fla. bystander who shot cop’s attacker receives new gun

Nov 16, 2016

By PoliceOne Staff

ESTERO, Fla. — A bystander who assisted a Lee County Sheriff’s deputy who was being attacked received a new gun Tuesday.

Shoot Straight reached out to the agency to follow-up on the shooting, The News-Press reported.

 “He had to impound the gun for evidence,” Mark Williams, who manages the company’s Fort Myers location, said. “We wanted to donate a gun so this man’s not unarmed.”

Read more at PoliceOne

If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies,  foreign and domestic, please consider making a donation to support our work.   You can donate HERE.

Citizens Fight Back, Move to Impeach Judge For Letting Pedophile Cop Off Easy

As The Free Thought Project has consistently reported, police officers, even if they’re caught on video committing a crime, are rarely punished to the same standards the public which they’re sworn to protect are held to. And now, it seems, even retired police officers are given the same preferential treatment.

Gerald Cookus, a twenty-year veteran of the Wilkes-Barre Police Department in Pennsylvania, was sentenced to just 3 months in prison for admittedly molesting an 8-year-old girl at his home on Mayock Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Cookus, who was working as a greeter at the school known as the Solomon Plains Education Center, was seen by the victim’s mom hugging the victim in a way that aroused her suspicions. Upon further investigation, it was discovered Cookus had molested the girl because, in his words, he felt like she liked it.

According to WNEP News, “Court papers show he admitted to police he touched the girl inappropriately because he believed she thought it felt good. School leaders do not think the assaults happened on school grounds. He was fired from his position at Solomon Plains Elementary in November.”

News reports indicate the former career police officer was overcome with emotion, “Inside the courtroom, his lawyer told the judge he’s living with the loss of his family’s respect.” And, “Before he was sentenced, Cookus told the judge through tears, ‘this is the worst thing in my life and I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry.’” But all of the emotion, the tears, the words of remorse, mean nothing when you examine the research that exists on pedophiles.

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Pedophiles are serial offenders. Very few are arrested as a result of their first offense, and go on to molest children, over and over again. While it’s too early to tell in the case of convicted pedophile retired officer Gerald Cookus (mainly because he’s only been convicted of one crime by one accuser), pedophiles are experts at victimizing.

According to one source which examines research related to pedophiles and their victims, “Pedophiles have a strong, almost irresistible, desire to have sex with children. The average pedophile molests 260 victims during their lifetime. Over 90% of convicted pedophiles are arrested again for the same offense after their release from prison.”

We at The Free Thought Project encourage you to come forward, if you’re a victim of this pedophile cop. Be strong and courageous and take your own accusations to the police station nearest you. If you recognize this police officer as someone who molested you, don’t stay silent any longer.

While Cookus was working at a local elementary school, he also worked in security at Wilkes University in the 1990’s.

Moreover, citizens of Wilkes-Barre are outraged at the judge in the case, Judge Sklarosky, for going easy on the retired police officer. Three months is an outrage to anyone who’s ever been a victim of a pedophile, has been molested, or has been involved in the process of a police investigation of the horrors associated with child sexual abuse.

Citizens want to know how a judge can be so callous as to not bring a harsher penalty to the former police officer and use him as an example for the rest of the community. They’ve established a petition to impeach Judge Sklarosky.

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According to the petition:

This is a deep problem in NEPA that has to be addressed. Corruption, nepotism, and racially/economically unequal sentences. If this Judge wants to impose only a 3 month sentence to a cop who admitted to sexually assaulting an 8 year old while throwing the book at everyone else, let’s make an example out of him and show the local government officials we’re not putting up with this blatant corruption that haunts our area anymore. It’s morally wrong. A man who sexually assaults an 8 year old will not be properly rehabilitated, if that’s even possible, after three months. This judge obviously lacks empathy to the victim or possible future victim(s) and is totally incompetent. He has no business collecting our tax dollars anymore, he obviously doesn’t represent what we the people stand for. Minorities caught with marijuana do more time than this man. Shame on him. The judge also had the audacity to claim he was not a “sexually violent predator”. So judge, if sexually assaulting an 8 year old isn’t sexually violent, what is? Please resign. Don’t make us impeach you. Leave with whatever little shred of dignity you have left. If not, and you prove to us you have absolutely no morals or backbone, don’t for a second think we’re going to allow you to win your reelection coming up. #PowerToThePeople

If you’d like to sign the petition, you may do so by clicking here. Let’s send a message as a nation and a world that we will not sit idly by as judges go easy on former cops. The world needs to be a safer place for children. Priests, pastors, missionaries, teachers, counselors, police officers, anyone who works with children, take notice, we will not sit idly. If you take the perp walk, we will make sure your face is known to the world.

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